www.jameswarfield.us

www.jameswarfield.us has been created to share a body of work. It is a collection of milestones – some scholarship, some art, some poetry, some built works – and some records simply looking for a home. The website is a work in progress, as visitors will soon find, more outlines than a completed works. It comes with no manual. Explore and return, for it will grow and fill out with time.

The website galleries exhibit old and new – order and chaos – refined shows and raw data. They are circles that have no beginning, no end – no entry, no exit. “All my life’s a circle, and I can’t tell you why, the seasons keep on spinning, the years keep rolling by.” Harry Chapin wrote these words some 35 years ago. We were contemporaries, Harry and I, although we never met. I admired his poetry and lyrics, his stories and fables, his integrity and spirit. He wrote and sang about ideas and people. Harry was able paint pictures, spin yarns, convey ideas, and espouse truths with an economy of words. Most significantly, he applied these talents to celebrate the unique character of the common man and everyday relationships and events.

In my own fashion, I’ve tried to do the same: expressing color and texture, character and time, through stories and images, words and drawings. In an academic setting, where scholarship has been expected, I’ve more often opted for interpretive works, “verities and balderdash,” finding truth in the tired faces, time in weathered ruins, color in indigenous markets, and texture at the crossroad setting of netherworlds.

My experiences have been worldwide, in cultures more different than one can imagine, yet more alike than I can explain. For fifty years, I’ve expanded my “backyard” to include the fragmented remains of ancient civilizations, the vernacular villages and folk treasures of the third world, and landscapes of the world’s most beautiful and challenging natural environments, but I’ve always returned home. I’ve traded the fresh eyes and energy of youth for the experience and knowing of age. My life has indeed been a circle, some best work done in youth, some hopefully still ahead.

In the purest form, this website reflects that circle, a lifelong merry-go-round. Welcome, I invite you to catch a ring! Enjoy and explore www.jameswarfield.us.